Improve your Retail Sales, Promotions and In-Store Events

I know that a lot of stores and businesses are having all kinds of promotions and events right now so I want to talk about evaluating your events and how you could make them even better. Bob and Susan Negen of Whizbang! Training covered this topic splendidly recently so I’ll have them tell you about it. Take it way, Bob and Susan!

After EVERY promotion or event, big or small, have a Recap Meeting. This meeting is a chance to celebrate a job well done or talk about why something didn’t work as planned.It also gives you a chance to get everyone’s ideas on how to make the event better the next time around.These meetings are best when you have them right after you close, but you can wait until the next day if it works better. Don’t wait any longer than the following day. Wait too long and you’ll lose all the little impressions and fun, interesting ideas that are so important to continually improving your event.Here’s a quick list of things to things to make notes about in your meeting:

• Sales: Planned vs. Actual
• Cost of Event: Budgeted vs. Actual
• Pre Event Planning: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do better/differently next time?
• The Event Itself: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do differently/better next time?
• After the Event: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do better/differently next time?
• Promoting/Marketing the Event: What worked, what didn’t, and what can we do better next time?
• Other Thoughts/Comments/Ideas

Write everything down, put your notes in a file and you’ve got the beginnings of a bigger, better and more profitable event the next time around!

Retail Sale Idea: Boss is Away Sale

Here is a fun and creative idea to generate interest in your store, courtesy of The Cozy Nest in New Hampshire. The employees at the Cozy Nest had a “Boss is Away Sale”, and just look what great results they had when they were given permission to go wild, have fun, and create sales in her absence!

“I wanted to share a promotion that my staff had while I was at the June Retail Success Summit. I borrowed the idea from someone that said she had a “While the cat is away the mice will play” promotion while she was away from her store. I asked my employees if they would like to plan a similar event while I was at the Summit and that I would trust them to handle it and didn’t want to know anything about it.

“It was a huge success. They had a 237% gain over last year.

“Here are some of the things they did:

• Wore little glittery mouse ears with a pink bow the whole time I was gone
• Sent out a daily e-mail about the deal of the day (borrowed idea from the 12 days of Christmas)
• Had a big poster for the customers to sign and leave me a message
• Created a poster with a thermometer that they filled in every day to show how they were progressing
• Asked neighboring businesses to send their customers over and gave those customers an extra 10% off. Plus, the business that sent the most people received a gift certificate
• Raffled off a gift basket worth $300 (all clearance items)
• Held a daily raffle for 4 gift certificates ($25 each)

“I gave them a hefty sales goal and if they met it, I’d give them each a day off with pay, and they met their goal. They had a blast and were really proud of their event. The customers also had a blast.

“I had a friend drive by and they told me it was like a feeding frenzy and the parking lot was a mob scene. I am sure that created some buzz around town, plus it brought in some new customers that wanted to see what was going on!”

What a fun idea! I especially love the Deal of the Day email, the reciprocal program with neighboring businesses, the message poster for the boss and the mouse ears. Gosh, I guess I loved all the ideas. Please me know if you try this out. It sounds like a hoot!

Calming the Retail Customers’ Fear of Purchasing

You have customers walking through your door every day. They are cordially greeted by you or your staff, they browse, they ask questions and, if all goes according to your plan, they purchase your merchandise. But sometimes they do not. Hmmm! What could be the reason for this? Perhaps you don’t have quite what they’re looking for…or perhaps they’re afraid. Not afraid of you or your oh-so-not-scary merchandise, but afraid of the item not working out for them, after all.

Let’s look at some reasons a customer might be afraid to purchase. They are afraid that:

• the item may be less expensive elsewhere
• their significant other won’t like it
• it won’t match (their sofa, their pants, etc.)
• they won’t know how to use it

Have a meeting with your staff and ask them why customers may be hesitant to purchase in your store in particular. Once you pinpoint possible reasons, you can prepare your solutions. For instance, if the customer fears they will find the item cheaper elsewhere, you can implement a price-matching program if you don’t already have one in place. People may be more inclined to purchase if they know that they will be reimbursed the difference if the same item is found to be cheaper somewhere else within the next 30 days (or whatever time frame you choose). If the item doesn’t match or their significant other doesn’t approve, let them know they’ve got nothing to lose by trying it out since they can always return their purchase for a refund or store credit. If the customer is nervous that he or she won’t know how to operate whatever it is they are purchasing, offer them a training session and let them know they can always call the store for assistance.

As we’ve all heard said “The best offense is a good defense”. Being prepared for any objection or fear that may pop up means that you don’t have to fear losing a sale.